I'm going to buy replacements at Advance Auto, and going to go with either the Goodyear or Gates hoses. I'm trying out what I need to purchase.

The lower hose is the problem, and it has a slow coolant drip. But since I'm going to rip off one and dump in fresh coolant, I might as well do the upper too. Oh, while I'm doing this, is the thermostat easily accessible?

Sooooo, if memory serves me, coming off the engine, there is a short length of hose (a couple inches long) which connects to the longer hose, which in turn plugs into the radiator. I'd need p/n 21873 "Pipe to radiator" and 24022 "engine to pipe." Correct?

well, I now know why the hose was in two pieces. It was such a pain in the ass, that the original mechanic simply gave up and spliced a new hose-end onto the old one. The old hose-end was the failure point. Well, I think it was. More on that later. The service manual confirms it's a 1-piece unit, but the location of the hose-clamp.

Last weekend when I took to wrenching, I simply could not get a good angle on the hose-clamp as it was hidden behind the power-seering pulley. This was after ripping out the fan, radiator, raditor-shroud, and etc. After thinking to myself, "A dremel would be a good way to cut off this clamp," I saw the coolant-inlet.

I unbolted it instead. It's probably a good thing I did. For one, the inlet was pitted to hell, so that might have been the failure point. Also, it gave me a good opportunity to check the thermostat. The stamping on it read "96." So apparently it's the original piece, and long-overdue for replacement.

I ordered an OEM inlet and thermostat, and those should be in in a day or two. Hopefully by this weekend.

So, the purpose of this post is: Anyone replacing a lower radiator hose: just unbolt the coolant-inlet off the engine and replace the thermostat at the same time. You'll save yourself a big headache.